


Attic Hideaway

by orphan_account



Series: Based off Hamiltots [3]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Comfort, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Little!Alex, Non-Sexual Age Play, both just want to be somewhere quiet and soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-13 18:25:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9136120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Angelica 'Angie' Hamilton needs time away from her family sometimes so she tried to make a space away from the chaos for herself.Alex finds it.





	1. The Begining

Angie Hamilton was like her father far more than she knew. 

She liked to hide and curl up into small dark spaces for one, but naturally the reasons and incidence of doing so were different. 

Angie just got overwhelmed with people, wanting to be completely alone, where no one could find her. She hated being found, knowing that someone could look there in the future and maybe see her trying to curl up there. If she got warning that people were looking for her she would come out just so they wouldn't find her. She liked dark quiet places for their lack of sensory input, very good for her mental health. (Aspergers is a real bitch after all)

Most of all she liked knowing that she wouldn't be bothered. Truly being alone was something that not many people could do in her house, but if she silenced her group chats and slunk off she could be very alone for however long she wished.

It was for this reason she loved the attic so much.  
Years ago when her family bought the house they looked up at the small space on the top floor that was finished and thought it would be the perfect space for all the kids to play and do homework in. Since then it just became storage for all the defunct supplies for activities the kids picked up and dropped.  
The original furniture was still there though, tables, chairs, and even a sofa, they were all just covered in junk. 

Until Angie went up one day in an effort to find a new alone space. 

She completely cleared off the couch and brought up some blankets to make a nest in it, and pulled over a bookshelf so he could just stretch and get to the books on it. 

The whole setup worked very well for a while. Angie could go there and not be bothered, no one really noticed her absence, she kept improving the little hideaway, and it was oh so quiet up there. 

Until one day she went up there to find her father already in her nest fort thing. He looked just as surprised to see her as she was to see him, but he did look considerably more panicked than she felt. 

It was nothing but silence as they looked at each other from across the room, Angie in front of the only door with another blanket in her arms and her father curled up across the dimly lit room. 

Angie broke the silence.  
"As long as you don't ever look for me up here or tell anyone about it you can stay."

He just looked at her, not saying anything but clearly full of turmoil.

"You don't have to say anything. As long as you come up here sometimes, want to help me make it bigger?" She said showing him the blanket in her arms, It was a nice soft worn in thing that she found on the top shelf in her closet. 

Alex just nodded and helped her make the nest bigger and didn't react when she got in the nest next to him and leaned on him, reading on her phone and perfectly happy to be quiet and just there.


	2. Mostly blankets, partially pillows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a storm hits Angie is in the attic having a nice time listening to it.
> 
> Her dad comes up to the hideway and is pretty surprised to see her in her own damn nest for some reason, and she reads to him.

The second time Angie Hamilton her father up in the attic was in the middle of a storm.

You see storms calmed her, the wind and rain and thunder just...made her feel like she was untouchable. The eye of a storm in perpetuity. It was relaxing.

She did get the feeling her father did not feel the same way though, which made her more curious as to why he came up to the floor of the house he could hear the storm clearest from.

It happened like this, Angie was reading a book laying down in her blanket nest fort when she heard a shuffling from across the room, and sat up enough to see her dad coming towards the fort.   
She reluctantly sat up and made a space for him, as making him sit on her would be rude and potentially painful for her.

"Hi you can sit next to me." She offered to him, which made him look up and notice her for the first time, a flash of something she couldn't recognize going across his face. He didn't say anything though, which she was beginning to think was his state of being for the attic hideout. 

He sat in the nest next to her, seeming hesitant. Angie didn't know what to do so she did what she did best-talked.

"I'm reading a book, well I mean it's technically transcripts of my favorite podcast, but it is bound and marketed as a book so it is a book? The bottom line is the book I'm reading has some really weird yet oddly calming subject matter, but that might be just the guys voice that I'm imagining. Want me to read you some of it? I can try and do the voice that the guy who voices it does so it's calming and takes your mind off the storm?" He was looking really tense, the storm was doing it, after all he knew it was ok to be here after last time right?

Her dad nodded and she grinned and flipped her book to the beginning, "You can get it much better from the beginning so I will start there...'A friendly desert community, where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.....'"  
By the time she got to the end of the transcription of the fourth episode, (as she was skipping the pages put in between by the creators explaining their creative process and extra notes on the episodes, but trying to do the sound effects she could remember, this took about an hour and half) she noticed that her dad looked way less tense and was sort of leaning back with his eyes closed. 

The storm had mostly passed by now, the only signs that it was there at all was the slight pitter of drizzle on the roof and the grey light of an overcast sky coming through the window. 

"Are you getting tired of my reading?" She softly asked, trying not to wake him up if he was asleep. 

"No, read more," he said in a sleepy voice that had the same whine that Billy or Lizzie got when they were tired but wanted more stories anyway. It was really easy to see the resemblance at a time like this. 

"Ok, one more only though," she said snapping into babysitting mode from the sound of the whine, too used to having small children demand she read to them all night long to not make a limit.  
"'Close your eyes. Let my words wash over you. You are safe now...." she said starting the transcript, and it was only when she neared the end, that she realized that she maybe shouldn't have told her dad one more story like he was a toddler.

When she turned to apologize and explain herself though, she found him asleep on the pillows his side of the nest.   
She finished the episode, ".....you know what's cool? A basilisk.'"

Not knowing what else to do she tucked her dad in with a loose blanket and kissed his forehead, after all he needed more sleep anyway.


	3. Broken Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A girls heart is a fragile thing, and when Angie's heart gets torn out and stomped on by her newly ex-girlfriend, she doesn't want anyone to see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any of this doesn't make sense please comment on this I'm sure I dropped a few plot points somewhere

For how normal the day started out there was no way to be able to predict what would happen. 

There was no ominous storm clouds or wind to dramatically blow hair. No windows or mirrors broke that morning.   
No black cats crossed Angie's path when she went over to her girlfriend's house. 

 

Angie would have preferred the warning to what she got.

-/-/-/-/-/-/

Knocking on the door of Rose's house, Angie was giddy. It was their one year anniversary, and getting the text to come over made her more than a little excited. Maybe she would be surprised with a date? Maybe she had a gift for her? Angie certainly did, after all it was quite the occasion.

When Rose came to the door she wasn't smiling. She let Angie in and had them both sit in chairs in the room right next to the foyer.

"Angie I asked you to come over so we could talk...."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

By the time Angie had the door shut in her face she was one gift and one girls shorter than she was half an hour before. 

Rose had just...torn her heart out, explaining that she really didn't like Angie any more, that Angie was little more than an experiment for her.   
Rose told her that she was more sure than ever that she just liked boys. 

When Angie said that she thought it would be happy, it was their anniversary, that she got her a gift, Rose took it right from her hands. Snatched it and told her that despite being an awful girlfriend that she had wonderful taste in gifts. 

Angie knew that Rose would be wearing the locket come Monday at school. She would probably never say who got it for her, why she had it, the significance.   
She would take the picture out for sure. 

All Angie could think of on her long walk back home was she was such a gullible dumbass for falling for Rose in the first place, such a moron to not see the signs. 

The train would get her home faster, but at home was her family who had heard her gush about the anniversary of her and Rose every day for the last week.   
She could do with not seeing them for longer. 

 

The day was sunny and cloudless, just the right temperature for that time of year, nary a breeze, the perfect day to be outside. It would do to walk home in. She just hoped that maybe some rain clouds could roll in and show the world how it should look.

The entire walk home there wasn't a dark cloud in sight. How disappointing.

The Hamiltons house was like a minefield. The ten people who lived there were all fairly active people, whether the activity was writing, taking care of others, general noisemaking, running, practicing something inside, playing inside, or mischief making. While all of that lead to a lively house, It also lead to a hard to subtly go anywhere house. 

On this too fine to be natural day, everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, was home. With a heavy heart Angie set about avoiding them all to spare herself the emotions she would inevitably have if faced with questioning from her brothers or mother.   
She did know her dad wouldnt care. She doubted he even heard her talk about Rose before. He was just so busy all the time, either working late, in meetings, or locked in his office when he was at home, It didn't make for the most present father figure.

It was almost funny, She thought to herself, that the only time she had seen him one on one in the last month was the day she read that book to him. It wasn't a mark against his parenting per se-just...she was the second oldest kid, she should know better than to expect her father to be anything but busy. The littler ones who don't understand get to see him more, he is more there for them since they don't expect him to just not be there.

Her mom did try and make him spend more time with them all, but with the whole fair thing it was cut short and she had to be an adult again, and with baseball too. Her dad didn't have to listen really to her so he just...didn't.   
It didn't help that she had to sit at the far side of the table from him, having to look after her younger siblings who took mom and dad being at the other side of the table as an invitation to do whatever they wanted. 

In short, Angie had to basically sprint past all of her family to ensure that none of them would notice her long enough to ask why her face was so raw and miserable. Running was normal enough in the house that it didn't attract attention. 

After almost sprinting up three flights of stairs, she went to her nest exhausted. She could hear the distant shrieks of her brothers probably playing nerf guns in the house. Maybe they even had the safety goggles on this time. Mom deserves one weekend without taking jimmy or jack to the emergency room. 

If it made downstairs quieter would it even be a bad thing?

She chastised herself, she shouldn't be even slightly want her brothers to get hurt. Shit this breakup was really fucking her up. 

To try and take her mind off it she grabbed the closest book, the book she was reading to her dad the last time in fact, and flipped through it. She settled on reading the proverbs trying to find one that made her feel better. 

"Stupid words don't..." she muttered to herself feeling herself get more and more upset, "stupid words why arnt you making me feel better?" 

She didn't realize she was crying. 

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The thing about unspoken rules is that someone has to pay attention for long enough to realize they are there. If someone isn't around enough to pick up an unspoken rule they can break it on accident. 

Alexander never really understood the unspoken rule to not follow or stop Angie when she's running, but the end result was the same, he passed Lizzie to AJ who wanted to teach her how to properly draw dragons. 

It was a good thing he knew where his eldest daughter would go.

-/-/-/-/-/-/

The attic in the day time was quite unlike the attic at night, the windows at the far end of it were letting in what would have been a decent amount of light had there not been a large pile of old sports bags in front of one and a chair in front of the other. This lead to it seeming to be a twilight zone, too bright to justify turning on lights but still too dark to see everything on the ground making the floor a minefield.   
Which also made it harder to see his teenage daughter lying in the nest. A book was bent at a weird angle several feet away, like it had been thrown from where she was. 

"Hey Angie, what's wrong?" He said softly to his daughter (she would always be the tiny girl who was so happy to see him when he got home, who drew pictures of him and her and Philip and AJ and eliza, And stopped asking for bedtime stories from him by the time jimmy was born-)  
(When did she stop hugging him when he got home?)  
(When was the last time he saw her not taking care of someone else?)

Angie looked at him, looking shocked to see him there. "My girlfriend broke up with me." She said in a cracking voice, "It was supposed to be our anniversary."

Alexander didn't know Angie had a girlfriend at all, and didn't know what anniversary it could have been or how involved Angie was. 

He kneeled by the side of the blanket nest and opened his arms for (a little girl who had to help raise her siblings, a child who gave up bedtime stories so her little brothers could get read to, an infant who looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky-) his daughter to take as an invitation for a hug if she wanted. 

Maybe she wouldn't want it. Was he intruding on her safe place? After all he had never been big when he was here before and she was in charge then, what if he was crossing a line?

Angie almost knocked him over by how quickly she threw herself into the hug, and he realized he wasn't aware of how strong she was. (The hug almost hurt due to her hanging on so tight) 

As his first daughter cried into his shoulder with half formed words and a flood of tears the story of how a girl broke her heart, Alexander held onto her too, rubbing her back and petting her hair. 

It was going to be alright.


	4. Bedtime Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angie starts thinking things through and adding things up. 
> 
> She recites bedtime stories for her dad.

The attic was colder than the rest of the house, which as things go, wasn't a surprise.   
The majority of the insulation was in the floor beneath where she stood, the small amount in the walls and ceiling being just enough to make the drafts from up here not too cold when felt from the third floor. 

There also wasn't a heating system up here, the radiator hookups that were so popular downstairs were skipped over completely up here. 

Angie unboxed the small space heater and aimed it toward the nest so she would be warm until her laptop would boot up and start burning her legs by how much heat it put out.

Maneuvering her way into the absolute center of the nest, she made sure not to drop her laptop on the way in. She had so much work to do and next to no time to do it in. 

Her group chat was active as always when she booted it up, Tina and Elle were trying to communicate to each other using French and Spanish respectively again, damn she would have to try and translate again wouldn't she. 

Angel <3: guys please calm down. I am here to translate   
Angel <3: as a reminder you both speak English perfectly well and can stop this at any time   
Angel <3: Tina I get that your mouth is numb, and yes she is saying her mouth is numb Elle. 

And so went her chatting/translating with her friends for a while until her dad poked his head up the top of the stairs. 

"Angie are you up here?" He asked hesitant. 

"Of course I am dad, what's up?"

"I wanted to maybe talk about this fort thing you are making here."

"What about it?"

"Well we haven't talked about this really. I know it's your fort, and that you have been alright with me coming up to relax in it in the past but-"

"Oh you want permission! Ok, permission granted. Just don't leave food up here or let anyone else know this is here." She interrupted, knowing what he was gonna say. 

He raised an eyebrow. "Sure thing Angie, but your mother might go looking for me and find me here if she looks long enough."

Shrugging she moved her laptop to the side. "As long as you don't purposely tell her it's here and it's where I go to hide it will be fine dad." She assured him and paused. He looked really worn down, like he may have been looking forward to being alone if she wasn't up here.   
"Dad do you want to just have some quiet time where I recite all the stories I can remember off the top of my head?"

"Whatever happened to you having actual books you can read from up here?" He asked already grabbing a blanket to wrap himself up into so he would be comfortable and not have to think while she recited the stories evenly. 

"Well I figured that stories you used to read for me at bedtime might be better quiet time stories. I still remember a lot of them, so you get to listen," she said grinning at him.

Alex was curled up in a blanket looking at her expectedly. 

"Ok I'll start with my favorite story from when I was little, 'In an old house in Paris all covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines....."

-/-/-/-/-/-/

When she had exhausted her répétiteur of stories, her father was fast asleep and sucking his thumb. 

Sucking his thumb...and he did act a lot like her little siblings did when he came up jet for time away from the family.

She had dismissed it before as just being little more than coincidence but....well there was so many it couldn't hurt to look some stuff up. 

She could talk to him about it some other time, when he seemed more adult. 

Yeah, talking to him one on one couldn't possibly go wrong.

After all it's not as if it was a matter of international security. 

Now that would be funny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me throughout this.   
> I would like to thank my groupchat who let me use them as models for Angie's online friends. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and please don't forget to comment!

**Author's Note:**

> I don't think she would know, shes just a teenager who both loves attention and the quiet. Leaning against her father as she reads is a nice time for her, especially if it's in a case where neither of them talk. 
> 
> After all with that many kids I don't expect he has much time to spend with her individually.


End file.
